The pro-British death squad, the LVF, which is reportedly under the control of leading loyalist Billy Wright (King Rat) threatened, in a statement to the Sunday Life newspaper, to take action against all "members and supporters of the pan-nationalist front" from all parts of Ireland and warned that visitors from the 26 Counties "should not assume that their safety is guaranteed" in the Six Counties. The same death squad has threatened to attack prison officers from 9pm on Saturday, June 6 if LVF prisoners which include King Rat are not transferred from Maghaberry jail to Long Kesh.
A member of the British paramilitary police (RUC), Gregory Taylor (41),was beaten to death by a group of over 100 loyalists outside Kelly's Bar in Church Street, Ballymoney, County Antrim.
TUES. JUNE 3, 1997: Róisín McAliskey was granted conditional bail in the London High Court and moved as soon as possible to a secure National Health Service mother and baby unit.
FRI. JUNE 6, 1997: Seriously-ill Republican prisoner Josephine Hayden was moved from Limerick Regional Hospital back to Limerick prison, seven days after she suffered a heart attack.
The Fine Gael/Labour/Democratic Left coalition lost its majority in the 26-County general election on June 6. The Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats coalition fell three seats short of a majority, ie 83 seats. Of the first preference votes Fianna Fáil won 39.33% of the vote (0.22% increase on 1992 election), Fine Gael (27.95% (3.48%), Labour 10.40% (-9.91%), Progressive Democrats 4.68% (no change), Democratic Left 2.51% (-0.27%), The Worker's party 0.44% (-0.23%), Green Party 2.76% (1.36%), Provisionals 2.55% (0.94%) and others 9.39% (3.42%). Of the 166-seat Leinster House assembly Fianna Fáil won 77 seats, Fine Gael 54, Labour 17, Progressive Democrats 4, Democratic Left 4, Green Party 2, Provisionals 1, Socialist Party 1, Independents 6.
SAT. JUNE 7, 1997: A parade of over 60 loyalists band attacked the Catholic church at Harryville in Ballymena breaking two 12ft by 3ft windows and setting a notice-board and porch on fire.
The POW Department of Republican Sinn Féin launched a campaign for the unconditional release of Josephine Hayden, Cumann na mBan prisoner in Limerick jail, who suffered a heart attack on May 30.
SUN. JUNE 8, 1997: Mother-of four Catherine Ramsey, whose home in Parkend Street in north Belfast had come under attack from a loyalist mob six weeks previously, was again the subject of an attack by a loyalist gang wielding iron bars who attempted to break the living-room windows at 2am.
Breeze blocks were hurled through the front window of a flat occupied by a nationalist family in Linn Road, Larne, Co Antrim at around 1am. The owner of the flat, Roseanne Rogers, died in hospital at the same time as the loyalists were attacking her home. She was suffering from a stroke and had been ill for some time. Her 20-year-old son was in the flat at the time and received a wound to his arm in the attack.
WED JUNE 11, 1997: The former political prisoner Pat Kelly died, aged 49. Kelly was the centre of a campaign to have him transferred from prison in Britain to Portlaoise prison near his home in County Laois after he developed skin cancer. A native of Ballybrittas, Co Laois, he is survived by his partner Angela Rice and a daughter.
British direct-ruler Marjorie Mowlam confirmed that the British police (RUC) had known since March that it had fired plastic bullets which travelled faster than safety regulations allowed. This followed an admission from the British Ministry of Defence that 9,000 defective plastic baton rounds had been fired in the Six Counties between 1994 and April 1997. More than 90,000 plastic bullets were found to be faulty and withdrawn.
A Derry man, Éamonn McCormick (23), who was injured by a plastic bullet in May 1994 was awarded £1,250 damages by Derry County Court.
Bobby 'Basher' Bates, one of the 1970s 'Shankill Butchers' loyalist death-squad, was shot in the back of the head by a fellow loyalist as he opened a drop-in centre for ex-loyalist prisoners on the Woodvale Road in West Belfast at 8.45am.
THURS. JUNE 12, 1997: Republican prisoner Michael Hegarty was sentenced to ten years by the 26-County Special no-jury Court on explosive charges.
Two incendiary devices were left outside a group of houses in Ballycastle, Co Antrim. The houses were evacuated while the British army defused the devices. The nationalist family who are believed to have been the target of the attack previously had their home petrol-bombed in July 1996, during the Drumcree stand-off.
FRI. JUNE 13, 1997: British police (RUC) in Belfast opened fire on leading Provisional Eddie Copeland''s car on Berwick Road in the Ardoyne area at around 6am.
SAT. JUNE 14, 1997: Martin Gavin (21), a nationalist member of the travelling community, was attacked while walking along the Crumlin Road area of Belfast when he was attacked by a gang of five loyalists, who left him with a seven-inch gash under his chin and two other deep wounds in his head, a badly-gashed hand and a fractured skull. The injuries required 21 stitches in his head, 20 in his neck and six in his finger and will cause permanent scarring.
SUN. JUNE 15, 1997: The annual Wolfe Tone Commemoration took place at Bodenstown, Co KIldare. The oration was given by Michael McManus, Fermanagh.
MON. JUNE 16, 1997: Two British policemen (RUC), David Andrew Johnston (30), and John Graham (34), were shot dead by the Provisionals military organisation at Church Walk in Lurgan, Co Armagh .
THURS. JUNE 19, 1997: The British army carried out a controlled explosion on a suspect device attached to the car of a Provisional councillor in Ballycastle, Co Antrim. It was believed to be the work of a pro-British death squad.
FRI. JUNE 20, 1997: Patrick Kane (39), one of the Casement Three, was released by the court of appeal in Belfast having been cleared of involvement in the killing of two plainclothes British army corporals in Belfast in 1988.
FRI./SAT. JUNE 20/21, 1997: A house in Belfast's Finn Square area in the west of the city came under attack from stone-throwing loyalist youths. The nationalist estate, positioned near the lower Falls 'peace line', has been attacked on many previous occasions.
SAT. JUNE 21, 1997: It was announced by Canon Seán Connolly that Saturday evening Masses at the Church of Our Lady at Harryville in Ballymena, Co Antrim would be suspended until September 6.
A British-backed death squad was responsible for a car-bomb attack on the car of an unnamed former nationalist political prisoner who served a sentence between 1982 and 1986 at Claremont in Belfast.
SUN. JUNE 22, 1997: An Orange parade marched through the mainly nationalist town of Bellaghy, Co Derry, separated from nationalist protesters by hundreds of British police (RUC).
TUES. JUNE 24, 1997: In the Village area of south Belfast posters appeared throughout the district warning nationalists to vacate the area. The death-threat posters were targeted at the recent growth of the nationalist population in the predominately loyalist Village area.
WED JUNE 25, 1997: British police (RUC) fired CS gas canisters through the windows of Michael McClune's Arlington Drive home in Belfast before storming the fume-filled house where he and his wife and two small children were sleeping. An undercover Crown Forces member, who refused to identify himself, held a gun to Michael McClune's head while his wife screamed at the man not to shoot him. The RUC later apologised and admitted they had entered the wrong house.
It later emerged that a nearby house had been taken over by armed men who are believed to have been preparing a sniper attack on the British Crown Forces. Two fully-loaded AK47 rifles were allegedly found at the scene and one man was arrested.
The International Operations and Human Rights Committee, a Sub-committee of the US House of Representatives, held a Hearing on human rights violations in the Six Counties.
THURS. JUNE 26, 1997: The new 26-County assembly met at Leinster House and a Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats coalition were voted into government under the leadership of Bertie Ahern.
FRI. JUNE 27, 1997: British Crown Forces were targeted again when a missile was fired from an RPG7 rocket
SUN. JUNE 29, 1997: British paramilitary police in full riot gear backed up by armoured Land Rovers launched a attack on peaceful nationalist demonstrators protesting against the RUC pushing through 1,500 Orangemen as they staged their annual Whiterock parade in Belfast.
MON. JUNE 30, 1997: Claims that Britain has been dumping radioactive waste in secret since the 1950s emerged in official papers released.
The British government withdrew from Hong Kong after 156 years of occupation at midnight.
British troops and their paramilitary police allies were reported to be building a phalanx of military personnel, machinery and steel screens in preparation for forcing the Drumcree Orange march down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown against the wishes of the nationalist residents.
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